Kyle Stephens’ debut album Considering Every Change is his return to music.
He picked up the guitar when he was nine years old and, after feeling a sense of looming cynicism, walked away from songwriting around his mid-twenties. “I was going to shows and standing at the back of the room having a beer and being grumpy. And then the second the band's done playing, I didn’t want to hang out with anyone. I wanted to go home. I wasn't playing in any bands anymore, I stopped writing,” the Toronto musician says, detailing the slow creative deterioration. “I took some time away, a much needed musical sabbatical.” Stepping away allowed him the freedom to return to it clear-headed and passionate like never before, resulting in nine engrossing folk-rock songs that encompass self-maturation, comfortability with the passing of time, and consideration of his surroundings.
When his joy for music began waning, Stephens turned to his career in environmental science and data analysis. But his creative itch returned and he began writing songs with an open mind. He explains this was the first time he was able to incorporate environmental motifs and write about climate change comfortably. “It was the first time I felt like I could bring those two parts of me together in a way that felt the way that I actually feel on a day to day basis,” he explains. “You do what you can within your own control, but also we still have to enjoy our lives.”
Along with the sprinkling of scenic images, the compositions written by Stephens and produced by fellow Canadian musician Jonas Bonnetta are as inviting and unexpected as a newfound path on a familiar, sublime hike. Take the opening title track that begins with sturdy acoustic strums and excited rhythmic taps leading to a hushed transition. A shower of cymbal hiss and tender guitar plucks highlight that moment where they pull back overlooked brush and burst into a lush clearing of fierce synths and triumphant drums. “Stop taking your time dwelling on it,” Stephens beckons in a honeyed tone. Be alive in the moment and embrace what’s in front of you.
That urgency to follow one’s intuition and embrace their surroundings was instilled in the album’s recording process. “One major theme is space and location. That's why we recorded it where we did.” Stephens retreated to Bonnetta’s Port William Sound studio in Mountain Grove, Ontario. “You're sitting in the studio tracking something and you look out the window there are deer walking or wild turkeys. This is lovely,” he recalls. Stephens intentionally chose to work with Bonnetta as a fan of his music and also to be thrust in the middle of nature, allowing for a bike ride or hike to happen when the two weren’t working on music. “I wanted to go out there to record because it was this beautiful environment to be in,” he says. “It's a part of the world that's important to me. And, it felt nice and isolated and safe during COVID for just the two of us recording everything ourselves.”
The album came together in two sessions. The first part happened as a five-day stretch during a heat wave in July 2020 where Stephens and Bonnetta completed six songs. “Instead of rushing back in the fall, I pushed it till February,” Stephens says about finishing the final three tracks. It would be freezing cold, northern Ontario weather with five feet of snow. “It'd be the exact opposite experience and that was a very deliberate choice to do that, to see what being there in that kind of time would do to both of us and to the vibe in the studio.”
Considering Every Change reminds us that awareness is a practice. It’s easy to get wrapped up in routine and in competition with oneself and others. It’s easy to forget that we’ve been conditioned to draw lines between us and our surroundings, rather than realizing we’re all a part of a whole. Whether Stephens is singing about valuing his relationship and the memories it's gifted him, the swift changing of seasons, or emitting a signal of love for friendships that have naturally drifted away, his music reminds us to pause and listen. Delicate vocal shifts on “Slow Changing Seasons” or the expansive sway of the instrumental track “Variations” are gentle inclinations to take a breath. The album is a result of “stepping back and giving yourself the space for what you want to do,” advice he’d offer to anyone who needs to hear it. Take a step back and see what returns to you.
Words by Margaret Farrell
Photographs by Colin Medley